A commercial pilot project confirmed a record production of geothermal energy in northern Nevada this week.
Fervo Energy announced it had successfully completed the well test at its full-scale commercial pilot, ‘Project Red’, accelerating the deployment of next-generation geothermal power.
The successful well test confirms the commercial viability of Fervo’s drilling technology and establishes Project Red as the most productive enhanced geothermal system in history.
The 30-day well test, a standard for geothermal, achieved a flowrate of 63 liters per second at high temperature that enables 3.5 MW of electric production, setting new records for both flow and power output from an enhanced geothermal system.
Fervo is the first company to successfully drill a horizontal well into thermal reservoirs of heat to produce commercial geothermal energy, thus “reducing drilling risks”.
“By applying drilling technology from the oil and gas industry, we have proven that we can produce 24/7 carbon-free energy resources in new geographies across the world,” said Tim Latimer, Fervo Energy CEO and Co-Founder.
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“The incredible results are the product of many years of dedicated work and commitment from Fervo employees and industry partners, especially Google.”
In 2021, Fervo and Google signed an agreement to develop the next-gen plant with the goal of powering Google’s Cloud servers in Las Vegas with an “always-on,” carbon-free resource that will reduce the company’s hourly reliance on fossil fuels.
According to a company statement, Fervo achieved lateral lengths of 3,250 feet, reaching a temperature of 191 °C.
Fervo implemented an induced seismicity mitigation protocol following best practices established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and completed the project without incident. Data collected through the course of this pilot will enable rapid advancement in geothermal deployment, with Fervo’s next horizontal well pair planned to achieve more than double the power output of the pilot design.
Google’s Senior Director for Energy and Climate, Michael Terrell, said, “Achieving our goal of operating on 24/7 carbon-free energy will require new sources of firm, clean power to complement variable renewables like wind and solar.”
Fervo says their results show that geothermal energy could supply over 20% of U.S. power needs and compliment wind and solar to achieve a fully decarbonized grid. “With Fervo’s breakthrough, no technological barriers to geothermal deployment remain.”
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Jesse Jenkins, leader of the Zero-carbon Energy systems Research and Optimization (ZERO) lab at Princeton University, said, “Fervo’s successful commercial pilot takes next-generation geothermal technology from the realm of models into the real world and starts us on a path to unlock geothermal’s full potential.”
Currently used in 26 countries, geothermal technology produces electricity by pumping cold water underground, where it is heated up by the Earth’s temperature, and brought back to the surface without emitting carbon or other harmful pollutants.
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This summer, Fervo broke ground on its first greenfield development in southwest Utah, adjacent to the DOE’s Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE). Revenue and learnings from Fervo’s Utah project will go toward the development of other projects in new geographies.
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Excellent news! I hope this can be replicated in many places in the USA with the latest modern technology.